


Roll For Character Growth

by Riley_Sivertsen



Category: Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Baffled Aro, Canon Compliant, Competent Bisexuals, Disaster Gays, Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon), Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up Together, I don't think this is set in the 80s like the original but I didnt really think about it, M/M, Mild Internalized Homophobia, Multi, Mutual Pining, Questioning, Slow Burn, Teen Angst, chubby presto because I can, insecure presto, no beta we fail like venger, polyamorous characers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25124956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riley_Sivertsen/pseuds/Riley_Sivertsen
Summary: They just wanted to celebrate Sheila's eighteenth birthday. They ended up in the Realm. Now they need to rely on each other to get back home - and to survive that long. Because there may be a lot of dangerous things in the Realm, but what can be more dangerous than their own feelings?I bring you pining gays, competent bisexuals and a baffled aro who frankly cannot believe they're the youngest person in this group. Maybe they should cut Eric open and count the rings.
Relationships: Diana the Acrobat/Hank the Ranger/Sheila the Thief, Diana the Acrobat/Sheila the Thief, Diana | The Acrobat/Hank | The Ranger (Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon), Eric | The Cavalier/Presto | The Magician (Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon), Hank | The Ranger/Sheila | The Thief (Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Roll For Character Growth

**Author's Note:**

> The characters and the story all belong to the original creators, I've basically just taken some liberties because I wanted the exact same show but with some scenes and additions with more feelings and relationship development, because the characters are what makes this show awesome and I just wanted to explore their relationships more.
> 
> All the characters from the original show have been aged up slightly for my own comfort.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just a birthday celebration at an amusement park. 
> 
> It'll be fun, right? 
> 
> Nothing can possibly go wrong at an amusement park. 
> 
> (Featuring brooding Eric, pining Presto, yearning bisexuals and an unimpressed fifteen-year-old)

It was difficult sometimes, to wrap their heads around how little they all knew each other Before. Sure, some of them had been in each other’s lives forever, or friends for years, but even those relationships paled in comparison to the way they knew each other now. They way they got here seemed impossible.

**Diana**

“Does she always take this long to get ready?” Diana asked.

She was stretched out on the lawn in front of Sheila’s house while they waited for the birthday-girl to drag her cute butt out here. Sheila’s mom had been sat in the car with the windows rolled down, leafing through an old magazine for ten minutes. The car was too hot for the rest of them, so they were all strewn across the lawn as they waited.

And waited.

“Only lately,” Bobby replied. “When she’s gonna see Hank. It’s disgusting.”

Diana laughed at that. She knew Bobby had grown up seeing Hank almost like a big brother, so watching him and their sister trying out the recent romantic turn their relationship had taken had to be extremely weird.

“I think it’s sweet,” Diana said. “They’re brave, trying to take their friendship in a new direction. It’s got to be scary, you know? A change like that? So they must want it pretty bad to be willing to risk what they have.”

She hadn’t _really_ meant to say that much, so she stopped and glanced around. Bobby barely seemed to be listening, occupied by a comic book they were reading, but the third person on the grass was looking at her like he’d heard more than she's meant to give away.

Diana had always suspected that Presto noticed a lot more than anyone gave him credit for. He was a quiet kid who didn’t really have any friends in school, but Sheila and Diana had shared several classes with him and worked on some school projects together, where they’d discovered that under the shyness hid a funny, smart guy who genuinely cared about people but had way too many insecurities to put himself out there.

Naturally, they’d decided to adopt him, but it had been a challenge. Presto was so used to isolating himself that they practically had to force him on pain of death just to sit with them at lunch occasionally, and even then he barely said a word unless they were all alone.

But now they had graduated, and Diana was done accepting defeat. It hadn’t taken much to convince Sheila that they should invite Presto to her celebration. When they’d shown up at his front door, he had been genuinely surprised and happy to see them, and it hadn’t taken nearly as much arm-twisting as they feared to convince him to come along.

And now, Presto sat curled up on the lawn and looked at Diana with a sort of knowing, sympathetic look that he adjusted into a neutral expression as soon a he caught her noticing.

“Yeah,” he just said lowly. “It’s pretty brave.”

_Finally_ the front door opened and Sheila came bounding down the steps. Diana’s heart picked up speed. Sheila was always pretty, with her red hair and pale skin an scattering of freckles, but in that pretty purple blouse and short shorts, she looked like something out of a painting. Diana shook herself and got to her feet.

“About time!” she teased.

Sheila grinned. “We’re already celebrating my birthday three days late, what’s another thirty minutes?”

“Can we go already? Hank and his friend could have died by old age by now.” Bobby rolled their eyes at their big sister and went to the car without waiting for a reply.

“You look nice, Sheila,” Presto said shyly, and Sheila beamed at him.

“Thanks! I’m so glad you decided to come.”

Presto smiled and shrugged, then followed Bobby to the car. Diana and Sheila shared a proud and determined look – they _would_ break Presto out of that shell one way or another – and joined the others.

“You really do look great,” Diana said before they climbed in.

Sheila gave her a dazzling smile, her green eyes shining with that easy joy she seemed to find in everything. “Thanks, Di.”

That smile and the way Sheila said her name made Diana a little bit weak in the knees, and she gratefully strapped herself into her seat and shook herself internally.

_You’re an athlete, Diana,_ she thought. _At least pretend to have some self-control._

**Eric**

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Eric huffed. He and Hank waited outside the amusement park because of course Hank had insisted they arrive early. Even when they were little, Hank was allergic to being late.

_Sure as hell didn’t miss that part_ , Eric thought.

“A fun day out with good people isn’t going to kill you,” Hank said, unmoved as always by Eric’s hostility. “Think of it like practice. You can’t avoid meeting new people at college.”

College.

Hank’s big excuse for reaching out after nearly four years of not talking. They happened to be going to the same one this fall and were both pre-med, so Hank decided this was the perfect time for them to renew their friendship.

“Good people?” Eric scoffed. “They’re high school kids.”

“They just graduated,” Hank replied easily. “They’re barely a year younger than us.”

Eric didn’t really have a comeback for that, so he just grumbled and kicked at a pebble by his feet.

He wasn’t actually worried about the practically non-existent age difference of the rest of the group. He remembered Sheila from years ago; she was a nice girl, less insufferable than most people Hank hung out with. Probably because Hank had known her since they were kids, before high school when his standards dropped and his popularity rose and he was surrounded by all kinds of brainless morons dying to be his best buddies.

That was when Eric and Hank had stopped talking. None of Hank’s new friends liked Eric. They didn’t get him like Hank did, and Eric knew it was only a matter of time before Hank decided to choose all his new friends over him. So Eric decided to spare himself the rejection and retreated first.

Better to step away than get tossed aside without a care in the world.

And now they were here. Standing in awkward silence while they waited for the rest of this group Sheila had invited. It seemed entirely unfair that the awkwardness only seemed to affect Eric.

Was Hank even capable of feeling awkward?

“You seem nervous,” Hank pointed out like he’d read his mind.

“Oh yes, the idea of spending the day around flashing lights, wailing children and cheap carnie-food really has me shaking in my boots.”

“Right,” Hank just said, refusing to fuel Eric’s snark. “It’s just gonna be a few of us. Sheila’s younger sibling is coming, so is her best friend Diana, plus some guy from her class I haven’t really met. Apparently he’s shy or something and Sheila decided to twist his arm into socializing.”

“So I’m not the only one here against my will,” Eric said. “How reassuring.”

Hank just gave him one of those _I’m not buying it_ looks that Eric had once been so used. Those he kind of missed.

“Just give it a chance, okay?” Hank pleaded. “After, I’ll force you into an embarrassing heart-to-heart and you can make fun of me for it all through collage. But first you have to at least _try_ to have fun. Deal?”

Dammit if Eric didn’t almost smile at that. “Fine, deal,” he muttered.

Finally a car pulled up and Hank stood in recognition. Someone Eric assumed was Sheila’s mom waved at them while Sheila and the others exited the car. Sheila gave Eric a genuinely warm smile, which shouldn’t have been surprising, but it was.

And then the “shy guy” Sheila had lured with her climbed clumsily out of the back seat, and Eric’s stomach dropped.

This was just his luck, wasn’t it?

Trust Hank’s friend to have invited the exact redheaded boy with intense golden eyes and softly shaped body that Eric had spent the last couple of years trying very hard not to notice.

This day was going to be longer than he expected.

**Presto**

He probably didn’t even remember, Presto told himself.

It was a long time ago, and it’s not like it was a big deal anyway. It had probably just stood out so much to Presto because he had nothing else going on in his life, other than being the obligatory Chubby Gay Kid at school, not having any real friends and hiding in his room practicing stupid magic tricks. He had exactly the kind of mildly pathetic life that would turn a random encounter into a long-distance crush.

It had been the beginning of Presto’s Sophomore year, he’d been putting off going home after school by taking forever locating a book in the school library even though he knew exactly where it was. The place was mostly empty that time of day, and he’d wandered pretty far into the stacks, when he heard the voice. It was the sound of someone who was clearly trying to keep his voice down and not realizing how much he was failing.

Through the bookshelves, Presto saw the guy pacing around a desk with his phone pressed hard to his ear. He recognized him, of course; Eric Montgomery, the handsome Junior with the richest parents of anyone in school. They were corporate lawyers or something expensive like that. Safe to say that Presto hadn’t had much interaction with him, ever, other than noticing him around sometimes. It was hard not to; Eric was loud and a snob...but he wasn’t unpleasant to look at.

Now, though, the silver-spooned loudmouth didn’t look or sound anything like what he usually did. He was clutching the phone so hard his knuckles were white and kept running his free hand through his hair, causing a mess that he didn’t seem to care about. The most surprising thing, though, was how small and sad his voice was.

“Come on, Dad, please,” Eric said not-so-quietly into the phone. “Mrs Huxley only gave me a two hour extension until she goes home. I know you have a meeting but it’s just one dumb signature, it’ll take two seconds, I’ll be out of there before you even–”

Whatever reply he got, it couldn’t have been good. Eric lowered the phone and stared at it like it was a foreign object, and then he threw it on the floor so hard Presto was surprised the thing didn’t shatter to pieces. Eric sat down on a chair, buried his face in his hands, and it took a moment before Presto realized he was crying.

Oh, crap. He should not be watching this.

It was a total invasion of privacy, he hadn’t meant to linger so long, he just–

He started to retreat exactly one moment too late.

Eric happened to look up and noticed Presto on the other side of the shelf. Their eyes met and there was no way for either of them to pretend this wasn’t happening. Eric’s vulnerable, dejected expression changed instantly into a mask of bitter anger.

“What are you looking at, four-eyes?” he sneered. “You get your kicks spying on people’s private phone calls or something?”

Presto’s first reaction would usually be to flinch back at that kind of hostility, to flee the scene before the situation got worse. But he recognized the misery in this boy all too well, and he didn’t buy this sudden transformation as anything other than what it was; a protective shield.

He wasn’t sure what made him do it. Probably all the times he’d ended a conversation with his mom with a similar look on his face and wished more than anything that someone would show him just a little bit of kindness to ease the sting. Whatever the reason, instead of running, he dug a packet of tissues from his pocket and walked around the bookshelf.

Eric glared at him like he was gearing up to a fight – though Presto couldn’t imagine he looked at all intimidating with his soft body and the Flash t-shirt – but Presto just looked down shyly and put the tissues on the table.

“Sorry,” he muttered, because conversation with strangers wasn’t really his thing. “I, uh, I hope it gets better soon.” And then he turned and fled the scene with his face burning almost as red as his hair.

That was it. The only real interaction they really had.

Of course Eric didn’t remember it, why would he?

Okay, so Presto had started noticing Eric pretty much every day after that. So he’d felt sad for him whenever Eric displayed his characteristic snobbery, because he was sure it was just to protect himself. And okay, maybe he had started paying attention.

Presto started spotting the rare moments when Eric let his bravado slip, like when someone made a joke at his expense that he couldn’t quite shake off, or he chased away a bunch of Freshmen when they picked on an injured bird in the school parking lot.

Whatever.

Just because Presto hadn’t been able to stop noticing Eric in the two years since, didn’t mean Eric had any reason to remember such a tiny, insignificant meeting.

Not that knowing this made Presto’s stomach tingle any less at the sight of him. Not that his heart didn’t do a funny skipping thing whenever Eric looked directly at him.

Which was going to be really inconvenient, he thought, when he realized that Sheila’s friend had invited Eric to join them at the amusement park.

**Hank**

Hank wasn’t exactly surprised that Eric was acting like a petulant child before the others had even showed up. In fact, he was more surprised that Eric had agreed to come in the first place.

The two of them had been best friends since the first grade, practically inseparable. Then high school happened and something made Eric pull away. No, pull away made it sound gradual. It was more like Eric just decided one day that they weren’t going to be friends anymore, and then…they weren’t.

Eric had always been just rich and spoiled enough that he was used to getting his way, and too stubborn to have yielded even an inch whenever Hank tried to mend whatever was broken between them. Eventually Hank just let it go.

But now that he’d been given another chance to get his friend back, he wasn’t about to let it pass. They’d both taken a year off after high school – Eric to pat his resume with volunteer work and Hank to work and save up money – and as a result, they were both starting this fall at the same collage with a lot of the same classes.

It seemed stupid for them not to at least _try_ to mend fences. Why enter the scary world of academia alone when you could have a friend by your side?

Still, Hank was more than a little proud that he’d talked Eric into coming today. An amusement park? With people he barely knew? That was a tough sell, yet here they were.

After watching Eric squirm awkwardly for a while, Sheila’s mom pulled up at the park entrance. Sheila climbed out of the front seat, with Bobby, Diana and the guy Hank didn’t know piling out the back. They waved goodbye to the car and Sheila skipped happily towards them.

“Eric! I’m so glad you came!” she exclaimed, and Hank fought a laugh when she threw her arms around the unsuspecting boy, making him splutter awkwardly.

“Uhm, ah… right. Happy late birthday?” Eric choked out.

Sheila giggled. “Thanks. Eric, this is Diana and Bobby, and I don’t think either of you have met Presto.”

At the sound of his name, Presto seemed to snap to attention like he’d been lost in his own thoughts. Hank remembered seeing him around before, but they’d never talked. He held his hand out and gave his most welcoming smile – he didn’t want the guy to feel left out.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “Hank. Nice to meet you.”

With a shy smile, Presto shook his hand. The grip wasn’t as timid as Hank would have expected.

“You, too. I know who you are, obviously. You were like the king of the school before you graduated.”

Hank laughed. “Sheila keeps saying that, but I never know what she means.”

“Told you he was really that nice,” Sheila said teasingly. “He was so busy being himself that he didn’t even know he was popular.”

She threw her arm around Hank’s waist and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, and Hank hoped he wasn’t blushing, though Diana’s grin and Bobby’s mildly nauseated expression suggested he was.

He had known Shelia and Bobby all their lives. They had been neighbours before Hank’s mom moved them to an apartment building a few years ago. His mom was a nurse at the hospital and worked crazy hours, so her friends next door looked after him a lot as a kid. Hank didn’t remember knowing a time where he hadn’t played with Sheila, and one of his first solid memories was being there when Bobby was brought home from the hospital. They were his family.

But over the last few years, something about his friendship with Sheila had started to change. They started looking at each other differently, caring about what the other thought in different ways. They’d finally talked about it last Christmas and since then, well… They were trying to see what it all meant.

So far, it meant Hank felt like a happy puddle of goo whenever Sheila looked at him or touched him or said his name.

He liked that feeling, a lot.

“Are we ready to go?” he asked, hoping to remove the attention off himself and onto the birthday-girl where it belonged.

“Absolutely!” Sheila exclaimed, and was already running towards the line so fast the rest of them barely managed to catch up with her. “I have a list of everything I want to try, and since it’s my birthday, I will not be accepting no for an answer from _anyone_!”

“So the same as every other day, then,” Bobby said, but they were grinning, and laughed when Sheila ruffled up their hair. “Alright, alright! All hail the birthday queen! You happy?”

Sheila beamed, her enthusiasm so infections Hank suspected it even made Eric feel a little bit excited for the day ahead. “Very,” she announced. “High school is over and I’m finally eighteen. Who’s ready to celebrate the first day of the rest of our lives?”

**Bobby**

Bobby would never admit it, but they were glad Sheila had insisted they come along to the amusement park. Part of them worried that now that Sheila was eighteen, she wouldn’t want to hang out with her fifteen-year-old kid sibling anymore. Bobby didn’t _feel_ like a kid, and Sheila never treated them like she was that much older, but you never knew with these things. Maybe people changed the moment they were old enough to vote.

So it was nice to still be included. And it was kinda cool to get to hang out with a bunch of older kids. The only one of them who acted like an idiot about it was that asshole, Eric, who took every opportunity to point out and mock Bobby for being younger. Bobby knew Hank had been friends with the guy, but they had no patience for the son of the rich lawyers with the fanciest house in town, and mostly just ignored him.

The other new guy was cool, though. Presto. Bobby had never met anyone so close to their own age that was gay before, and, like, open about it. He even had a little rainbow flag stitched onto his backpack. Bobby would have never been that brave. They would be terrified of getting beaten up or something, but Presto didn’t even seem to think about it.

It was kinda awesome.

“What next?” Hank asked after they’d all finished their cotton-candy break. “Bobby, wanna see if you can beat me at the electric cars this time?”

Both Bobby and Sheila laughed, knowing that Hank had never once beaten Bobby at anything that didn’t involve throwing things at other things or reaching tall shelves.

“What about that thing?” Presto said timidly, and they all followed his line of sight. He was looking at the Dungeon and Dragons ride. “I know it’s kinda lame, but…”

“No, it’ll be fun!” Bobby insisted. They _did_ think the D&D ride was a little boring, but it was the first thing Presto had suggested all day.

“Sure, let’s do it,” Hank echoed, and gave Bobby an approving smile for being inclusive, which made them more than a little proud.

Eric made some complaint under his breath about “another slow ride”, but Bobby had been ignoring him this far and it was easy to keep doing it. The line wasn’t too long for this one, so Bobby was glad enough to enjoy some dark tunnels and fantasy tableaus.

“How are you doing, Bobby?” Sheila asked while they waited at the front of the line.

“I’m having fun. You?”

Sheila was already smiling, so the answer wasn’t surprising. “It’s the perfect birthday celebration! The sun is shining, I’m done with high school, we’re all here having a good time… I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

“I’ve never seen you this happy on your birthday before,” Bobby teased. “You didn’t sneak something from Aunt Edna’s medicine cabinet yesterday, did ya?”

Sheila poked her tongue out like a very mature eighteen-year-old. “I just have a good feeling about this birthday, okay? Like… Like everything’s about to change. Like there’s some grand adventure just around the corner.”

“Uh-huh,” Bobby said pointedly. It wasn’t the first time their sister waxed poetic about a perfectly normal day. Sheila might be the oldest, but she was the dreamer in the family. The one who never stopped believing in miracles and happy endings.

“Don’t give me that look,” she grinned. “You just wait and see. Something’s gonna happen, and it’s gonna be great.”

“Whatever you say, sis.” Bobby laughed and shoved Sheila ahead of them as a free carriage rolled up before them. It was exactly big enough for all six to fit into. The attendant came around to ensure they were all secured in their seat.

“You kids ready?” the old man asked with his hand on a crank.

“Wooooooo!” Sheila and Diana squealed excitedly, like they were on a crazy roller coaster instead of this relatively relaxed tunnel ride.

The attendant shook his head at their misplaced enthusiasm, and with one shove of the crank, they all set off into the dragon’s head framing the dark mouth of the tunnel.

**Sheila**

Sheila was pretty happy with herself, squeezed into the front of the carriage between Hank and Diana. She hadn’t exactly planned it, but she wasn’t sorry. Hank and Diana were her best, smartest and prettiest friends. Who wouldn’t want to be sat between them on the small seat of a tunnel ride?

Not that she’d told Hank that she found Diana pretty. Or told Diana that she found Diana pretty. She was happy to keep that thought to herself to avoid making her friend uncomfortable. And she wouldn’t want Hank to feel worried or anything. She wasn’t any less attracted to _him_ just because she was also attracted to Diana. She wasn’t less crazy about him just because the way Diana looked at her or spoke passionately about things she cared about made her feel the same way as when Hank did the same.

She just didn’t think it was something they needed to talk about. Hank was a great person and would never judge her for anything she felt, but he was still a guy. Guys got jealous, right? That’s what everyone said, all the TV shows and the girls at school who did nothing but complain about their crazy jealous or overprotective boyfriends. Sheila had never really seen anything like that from Hank, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen, right?

Either way, she was happy to hold Hank’s hand as they rolled into the dark tunnel, and to feel Diana’s thigh pressed against hers as they all eagerly awaited the first fire-breathing animatronics.

When they started, though, something wasn’t quite right. This ride was one of the oldest in the park. These things around them depicting images of fantastical creatures, their movements were too smooth. Too…realistic. The deeper they moved into the tunnels, the more she noticed it. For the first time since she was a kid, this ride actually seemed frightening.

“Guys, are you seeing this?” Hank asked quietly.

“I don’t like this,” Diana echoed his concern.

Suddenly their carriage started rocking brutally from side to side, much rougher than the ride was supposed to go. They all shrieked in surprise and grabbed onto the cart, clinging to it to avoid being jostled from their seats.

“What’s happening?” Presto shouted, and suddenly the dark of the tunnel was disrupted by a light so bright Sheila had to squeeze her eyes shut against it. Were they at the exit already? Was the ride malfunctioning? The movement around them got more intense, and the light felt like it could burn right through her eyelids, when finally everything came to a sudden and jerking stop.

And then, the ground disappeared from beneath them.

Sheila screamed as she felt herself falling through the air, eyes still shut against the blinding light, frantically waving her arms and trying to catch a hold of anything, any _one_ , but though she heard the others shouting around her, she couldn’t reach any of them.

Suddenly the air seemed to go thick like syrup and she slowed until her feet settled gently against solid ground.

The bright light faded, and Sheila blinked until she could see again. But what she saw wasn’t the amusement park.

She wasn’t in the carriage anymore. Neither of them were.

They all stood clustered together with their feet on sundried dirt. Sheila wasn’t in her own clothes anymore. The others weren’t, either. Before them was a barren landscape with jagged stones protruding from the ground and…and hovering in the air above it. Beneath two beaming suns.

That wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the five-headed dragon flying towards them faster than she thought anything that big could move.

This was not the grand birthday adventure Sheila had hoped for.

Where the hell were they?

**Author's Note:**

> Comments joy to my heart and do wonders for my mental wellbeing, if you want to leave them ♥️
> 
> You can come shriek at me about multiple fandoms on tumblr @mx-riley and I hope you're being kind and taking care of yourself in these hard times. Did you take your meds today? 😘


End file.
